Coalition Calls for Recycled Content Minimum in Plastic Bags

Twenty-seven organizations have called for urgent government action to help deal with the global plastic problem. The industry-led Recycle More Bags coalition proposes using legislative action and procurement policy to drive demand for a minimum of 20 percent post-consumer recycled content in some types of plastic bags by 2025.

The United States and Canada have been largely dependent on foreign markets for recycling plastic bags and similar plastic grades, like plastic wrap. Foreign demand for these products has decreased markedly in recent years, primarily as a result of China's National Sword, which banned the import of many recyclables. The North American recycling industry is now more dependent than ever on the health of domestic plastic film recycling end markets. However, these domestic markets have long been impeded by the continued expansion of domestic oil and gas activity and the low-cost virgin plastic resins that are produced as co-products.

According to More Recycling, a company that tracks plastic recycling year-over-year in the United States and Canada, the amount of bags and wrap collected through at-store recycling programs has grown, but that growth is expected to slow or reverse if the dynamics in the marketplace continue. There is a need to recognize the value of using recycled resin in new products to mitigate plastic pollution and to encourage the expansion of the North American circular economy.

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The Recycle More Bags coalition consists of stakeholders involved in the plastic recycling industry: industry associations, materials recovery facility operators, plastic reclaimers, municipalities, environmental nonprofits, recycling consultants and a film plastic stewardship organization. The coalition's signatories, who are situated at various steps along the circular economy supply chain, see a need for government to mandate an increased use of recycled resin in plastic bags.

"The Northeast Recycling Council is honored to support this important initiative,” said Lynn Rubinstein, executive director of the Northeast Recycling Council, in a statement. “We are particularly excited that it is industry led. Demand for recycled content is at the heart of successful recycling, as well as the thousands of jobs that are dependent upon it."

The call-to-action proposes a progressive timeline to increase the use of post-consumer recycled content in garbage bags and grocery bags. The vast majority of these two types of plastic bags are made from 100 percent virgin plastic resin.

"By creating incentives for minimum recycled content, we can both increase plastic recycling rates and help ensure plastic bags are managed in an environmentally responsible manner," said Robin Wiener, president of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, in a statement.

Increased demand for recycled plastic resin would in turn create greater incentive for effective and efficient recycling of plastic products, expediting the shift to a circular economy and improved environmental outcomes. For example, if all plastic bags sold in the United States and Canada included 20 percent recycled content, carbon emissions savings of about 320,000 metric tonnes per year would result.